The 44th Cleveland International Film Festival will be held March 25 - April 5, 2020 at Tower City Cinemas in Cleveland, Ohio.

In the spring of 2019, CIFF43 featured 450 films originating from 71 countries and an attendance of 105,839 film-lovers - making CIFF Ohio's premier film event and one of the largest and longest running regional film festivals in the US.

CIFF is one of the few Academy Award® qualifying festivals in the world for all three categories of short films – live action, animated, and documentary. CIFF is also one of the only festivals that continues to provide written feedback from our screening team. This past year, CIFF gave cash awards totaling over $125,000 to the winning filmmakers of 30 different competitions.

2020 LGBT films...

Outlook

This long-standing sidebar, now with a new name, features films focusing on issues, topics, and stories from the lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer communities.

When Ellie Conant passed away at the age of 36 after a long battle with lymphoma, her partner and her friends in the lesbian community wanted a way to share her story with others. Luckily, they knew the perfect place... {more}Top of Form

In the summer of 1976, sweltering heat plagues rural Romandy, Switzerland, where 13-year-old Gus lives on his family farm. While his father desperately awaits a delivery of water from the army, Gus begrudgingly helps dispose of the family’s dead chickens—... {more}Top of Form

In 2016, New York became the ninth state to require insurance companies to cover gender affirming surgeries. But the demand for these surgeries far exceeds the doctors who agree to perform them. As the number of patients in search of... {more}Top of Form

In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of sharing nuclear weapons technologies with the Soviets, were put to death by electrocution. The man largely responsible for their execution was Roy Cohn, a 24-year-old prosecutor for the U.S. Department... {more}Top of Form

Arguably one of the most infamous and recognizable writers of the 20th century, American author, Truman Capote, presents a controversial legacy that is deepened and enriched in this unfiltered documentary snapshot. The film offers one of the most in-depth looks... {more}Top of Form

In his debut feature, writer/director/star, Matthew Fifer, delivers a confident, complex portrait of a young bisexual man floating through life in New York City. Assembled like a mosaic, the film gathers small everyday moments in the life of Ben, a... {more}Top of Form

A groundbreaking achievement, DISCLOSURE examines the complicated history of transgender representation in film and television, probing the earliest days of black-and-white silent cinema up to the very edge of the current moment. In this involving deep dive, the film untangles... {more}Top of Form

For 100 years the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has defended the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution… rights that have been increasingly under attack in this divisive political climate. Since Donald Trump took office in 2017,... {more}Top of Form

Long-time friends, Matthias and Maxime, are on very separate paths. Matthias is climbing the ladder at his Montréal-based law firm, while Maxime is planning a fresh start in Australia, fed up with caring for his abusive and ailing mother, who... {more}Top of Form

Set in 1981 South Africa, MOFFIE takes its title from the vicious, anti-gay Afrikaans slur flung liberally in this bracing Apartheid-era military drama. An unflinching camera hovers closely to the inscrutable face of Nicholas van der Swart—a young, deeply-closeted conscript... {more}Top of Form

Oliver Sacks was a famed doctor, best-selling author, and neurologist, whose study of neurological oddities focused on humane treatment of patients. As much as he was committed to treating the disorder, he felt compelled to understand the patient. Author of... {more}Top of Form

This romantic comedy for the Instagram-era zigzags among the various romantic dalliances of a group of friends living and hustling in New York City. The film focuses on gay couple Adam and Marklin. One is a frustrated painter working for... {more}Top of Form

Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the breakneck, speed-of-light pacing of a modern screwball comedy like no other. Set in a colorful, glistening contemporary Los Angeles, STRAIGHT UP follows Todd, a razor-smart twenty-something gay man with a bevy of... {more}

Look no further for one of the most wildly funny and frequently moving lesbian romantic comedies of the year. Emma and Josie are newlyweds who are thrown a major life curveball when Emma’s cancer escalates to a point where she... {more}

Pablo has it all: a beautiful wife, two adorable children, a successful career, and good standing in his evangelical church. But when this high-profile family man announces that he’s leaving his wife for another man, his entire world begins to... {more}

To the outside world, Nina and Madeline simply appear to be friendly neighbors living in adjacent apartments. But behind closed doors, the two women share a deep passionate love they have kept hidden for decades. Just as Nina and Madeline... {more}

This powerful documentary traces the setbacks and triumphs experienced by LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers escaping from the Middle East and Africa as they struggle to carve out a new home in the U.S. Facing violence and persecution in their... {more}

Don’t expect to see the Radical Monarchs— a scout troop comprising young girls of color in Oakland, California—selling cookies. These troopers earn their badges by learning about social justice movements, from the Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter, and participating... {more}

Searing urgency is a guiding force as WELCOME TO CHECHNYA shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Since 2016 Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov,... {more}